Press release

5 May – 4 September 2005

A six-metre-high stainless steel ‘mountain’ will rise from the west lawn at the Natural History Museum this summer. The Museum and The Royal British Society of Sculptors have commissioned environmental artist Diane Maclean to create an outdoor sculpture that relates to the Museum’s scientific research. A series of photographic images will also be on display inside the building.

‘I worked with seven Natural History Museum scientists to develop this exhibition,’ says artist Diane Maclean. ‘I was fascinated by the beautiful and unusual molecular structures of the minerals they are researching. The collections inspired me to create a sculpture that would truly reflect the structure of the Earth.’

Eighteen metres long and composed of eleven separate vertical shafts, the piece known as Mountain rises six metres high with a ‘canyon’ at the centre that visitors can wander through. Museum scientists helped Diane understand the mineral, molecular and crystal structure of the Earth, and the sculpture’s highly reflective angular steel facets are reminiscent of the surfaces of cut gemstones and natural crystals.

Peepholes in Mountain will reveal highly magnified images of minerals such as aerinite and those found in a newly discovered Martian meteorite. An audio installation within the canyon space will echo through the sculpture with sounds of geological processes that occur deep within the Earth.

‘Collaborating with Diane was a wonderful opportunity for the Natural History Museum to show its mineralogy collections in an exciting new way’, says Dr Gordon Cressey, Head of Mineral Sciences at the Natural History Museum. ‘Our scientists have been able to make discoveries using images of mineral specimens taken through high-powered microscopes. Diane has used the same images as the basis of her sculpture, which reveals the beautiful aesthetic qualities of the mineral structures.’

Since she began to make sculpture in the 1980s, the themes for Diane Maclean’s work have related to the natural environment. She enjoys the challenge of new materials and technology, which she employs through her response to natural phenomena. The tensions and connections between industrial or technological materials and the natural world provide a theme for much of her work.

Diane Maclean lives and works in St Albans. Throughout the 1970s she had many portrait commissions in Europe, America and Canada. Her sculptures are in public collections in Britain such as the Highlands of Scotland (Legend, 1998), Milton Keynes (Wings, 2000) and more recently the University of Surrey (Spine, 2004). She also exhibited in Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Japan, Canada and Finland, where she has recently been Visiting Lecturer in Environmental Art at the Helsinki Fine Art Academy. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 1998.

This exhibition forms the final part of a three-year collaboration between the Natural History Museum and The Royal British Society of Sculptors. Outdoor sculptures by Peter Randall-Page and Tessa Campbell Fraser have been enjoyed by visitors to the Museum over the past two years.

Ends

Notes for editors

• Winner of the 2004 Large Visitor Attraction of the Year award, the Natural History Museum is also a world-leading science research centre. Through its collections and scientific expertise, the Museum is helping to conserve the extraordinary richness and diversity of the natural world with groundbreaking projects in 68 countries. The Museum is committed to encouraging public engagement with science. This has been greatly enhanced by the Darwin Centre, a major new initiative, which offers visitors unique access behind the scenes of the Museum. Phase One of the project opened to the public in 2002 and Phase Two is scheduled to open in 2008.
• Through its diverse and innovative arts programme, the Natural History Museum aims to promote the understanding and enjoyment of the natural world, communicating the Museum’s science through various media. The Museum has exhibited work by different artists such as Peter Randall-Page, Tessa Campbell Fraser, Olly & Suzi and Jan Fabre, and produced performances with companies such as Forkbeard Fantasy, Scarabeus Theatre and Faulty Optic.
• The Royal British Society of Sculptors (RBS) is a membership society for professional sculptors, founded in 1904. It is a registered charity which exists to ‘promote and advance sculpture in all its forms’, to ensure the continued widespread debate on contemporary sculpture and to promote the pursuit of excellence in the art form.

Visitor information

Admission: free

Venue: The Natural History Museum

Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 10.00–17.50, Sunday 11.00–17.50

Visitor enquiries: 020 7942 5000 Monday–Friday, 020 7942 5011 Saturday and Sunday

Website: www.nhm.ac.uk

CONTACT INFORMATION

For further information, please contact:
Mairi Allan, Becky Chetley or Sarah Hoyle
Tel: 020 7942 5654 Email: press@nhm.ac.uk
(not for publication)

Issued March 2005